As the Sabarimala Ayappa Temple is all set to open tomorrow for a special puja, the Sabarimala Karma Samiti, a joint platform of right wing outfits such as Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Hindu Aikyavedi had appealed to the media houses urging them not to assign women reporters in the hill top shrine. This is the second time the doors of the shrine is opening after the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of all ages to enter, PTI reported.

Spearheading Agitation

The SKS is spearheading the agitation against the Supreme Court order allowing women of menstruating age to enter the shrine, citing the deity of the temple, Lord Ayyappa is a Naishtika Brahmachari (celibate). Last month, when the hill top shrine was opened for monthly puja for five days, apparently, the first ever time after the court order, women reporters, who went to the shrine as part of their reporting assignments were heckled and their vehicles were damaged through stone pelting by the angry mob of protesters in addition to attacking the women devotees and forcing them to go back. The mob, consisting of Hindu fringe groups laid a siege to the road leading to Sabarimala.

In a statement sent to all editors and a copy of which was released to the media as well, SKS stated that even the entry of women journalists who come under the menstruating age group are likely to aggravate the situation. The statement further said, “Recognising your right to support or oppose the devotees stand on this issue, we hope you will not take a stand which would aggravate the situation.”

On November 5, the doors of the temple will be opened in the evening for puja on the occasion of Chithira Aattavisesham the following day, the birthday of the last King of Travancore, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, said the report. The doors of the temple will be closed at 10.00 on November 6, only to be reopened on November 17 for the three-month long annual pilgrim season.

The Delhi BJP leader, Rajeev Babbar has filed a criminal defamation complaint against Congress Member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor before a court in Delhi for his alleged “Scorpion” remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, news agency PTI said. According to the report, Babbar had filed the criminal defamation complaint stating that his religious sentiments were hurt with Tharoor’s remark.

Shashi Tharoor, Photo: PTI

“I am a devotee of Lord Shiva. However, the accused (Shashi Tharoor) completely disregarded the sentiments of crores of Shiva’s devotees, made the statement which hurt the sentiments of all the Lord Shiva devotees, both in India and outside the country”, Babbar stated in the complaint.

The complaint further stated, “The complainant’s religious sentiments were hurt and the accused deliberately did this malicious act, intending to outrage religious feeling of Lord Shiva devotees by insulting their religious believes.”

Freedom of Expression

Tharoor dismissed the complaint by terming the defamation complaint as “frivolous” and alleged that it was an attempt to “throttle the freedom of expression.” Babbar, in a complaint filed through the lawyer Neeraj, termed the statement as “intolerable abuse” and “absolute vilification” of the faith of millions of people. Reacting to the complaint, Tharoor told the media, “The charges are frivolous. If we start to stifle the right of the people to quote published material then where would our democracy head? Where is the freedom of expression?”

Babbar filed the criminal defamation complaint under sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code relating to defamation. The matter is likely to be heard next Saturday, noted the report.

Controversy

Apparently, Tharoor had created a fresh controversy yesterday while speaking at the Bangalore Literature Festival, claiming that an unnamed RSS leader had told him, “Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling. You cannot move it with your hand, and you cannot hit it with a chappal (slipper) either.”

New Book

Tharoor’s newest book, “The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and his India” deals with dissecting the Moditva brand of politics, where the author drives home the point that Modi is creating an India in his own image, writes Rihab Najeem in The Business Line.

At a time when it seems the only resource reliably worth the plunder is the public’s attention span, the advertising industry has to toil harder to separate a fool from his money. Take, for instance, books — a considerably attention-intensive product in an increasingly attention-deficit society. When new marketing strategies for books veer from bizarre book trailers to courting controversy on social media, politician and former diplomat Shashi Tharoor chose to promote his latest title, The Paradoxical Prime Minister: Narendra Modi and his India, through a device made familiar by his Twitter forays: a long, mildly baffling word.

‘Floccinaucinihilipilification’ was intended to convey what Tharoor thought of the Central government. Contrary to what breathless headlines insisted, the word was not being introduced to Indian audiences for the first time. In his 1991 film Agantuk, filmmaker Satyajit Ray has the protagonist, played by Utpal Dutt, explain the word’s meaning: “It means having little or no value”. Remarking how 29 letters are needed to express this sentiment, Dutt’s character asks: “Is this what civilisation has come to?” Interestingly, Tharoor’s new book sets out to ask the same question, writes Rihab.

A man and his regime

BLink met Tharoor (62) at his residence in Lodhi Estate in New Delhi. The former UN under-secretary general Tharoor bears all the signs of the only leveller in a power- and hierarchy-obsessed city — a smog-induced cold. But that hardly dulls the edges of his words as he explains the focus of the book — a fine-grained scrutiny of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s four-and-a-half years at the helm of India.

“I look at this phase in India’s political history through the prism of the Prime Minister specifically because his personal stamp is evident throughout his regime,” Tharoor says.

The book begins with a profile, an account of the “fundamental contradiction” within Modi as PM. Tharoor writes, “[Modi] advocates liberal principles and objectives, but if these are to be fulfilled, he would need to jettison the very illiberal forces that have helped ensure his electoral victories.” Referring to how the current dispensation has moved from the classic trope of Hindutva into that of “Moditva” — described in the opening chapter as “a combination of Hindutva, nationalism, economic development and overweening personal leadership” — Tharoor tells BLink, “It became impossible to ignore the PM’s personal responsibility for the direction of the government.”

Rihab writes, “The contents page — generally a benign section in most books — reads like an incriminating laundry list. With chapter titles such as ‘A Growing Wave of Communalism’, ‘The Attack on Institutions’, ‘Destroying Parliament’, and ‘The Dark Truth About Black Money’, the book is a wide-canvas sketch of the government’s many controversial measures and policies.”

A divisive logic

Tharoor, who is a Congress MP from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, does not find it easy to make time to write. “I have a full day’s work in my constituency and I therefore write at night,” he explains. “So I didn’t sleep much for the last nine months, trying to get the book together. But it was worth it, because the impact of the book is greater now, with only a few months left to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, than had it arrived in the midst of the hullaballoo of an ongoing election.” He says emphatically, “I want people to think about these things.”

Eye of a Storm

Stating that Tharoor has frequently been in the eye of a storm for making remarks that raise the hackles of either his own party members or his detractors, Rihab goes on to write that Tharoor was dropped as a spokesperson by the Congress when he congratulated Modi for his victory in the 2014 polls, while earlier this week, he was attacked by the BJP for describing Modi as a scorpion sitting on a Shivalingam. One cannot hit it with one’s hands, nor with a slipper, he said, and later clarified that he was merely repeating what an unnamed RSS member had been quoted as saying in a published article.

The new book was launched in very short time as his book, titled: “Why I am a Hindu” was released only in January this year. Reaffirming the pluralist ethos of the Hindu faith, the book defends the more inclusive and compassionate tenets of Hinduism against the excesses of Hindutva — cow vigilantism, lynch mobs, ghar wapsi, love jihad.

“It’s startling to know that of all the cow vigilante incidents, 97% took place in Modi’s regime. We’re looking at an extraordinary transformation here,” Tharoor writes and adds: “I grew up in the India of the 1960s, the India of inclusion, national integration, along with a certain amount of complacency about the fact that we had rejected the logic of Partition, and that we were a country for everyone. All of those things are now being fundamentally questioned.”

Pointing out “an intangible but perceptible change in the attitudes of people”, Tharoor who was the Union Minister during the previous UPA Government headed by Manmohan Singh, uses the Modi’s meteoric political ascent as a metaphor that explains the creeping resurgence of Hindu chauvinism in modern India, writes Rihab.

Wielding a sales pitch as a weapon

In the article, Rihab continues, “Tharoor locates Modi’s intellectual and political conditioning within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which from its origins in 1925 propagated a vision of a Hindu Rashtra founded on an aggressively masculine and exclusionary nationalism.”

Charting Modi’s political maturation from pracharak to Chief Minister of Gujarat, amid the 2002 riots that later led the Opposition to coin the epithet “Maut ka Saudagar” (‘Merchant of Death’), to eventually becoming a Prime Ministerial candidate on the strength of his economic management of Gujarat, Tharoor cites a market analogy.

“All this was deftly portrayed through skilled marketing: the product was the chief minister himself, the sales pitch was slick and tirelessly repeated, and the ‘consumer’ was the Indian voter, first in Gujarat but thereafter across the nation,” Tharoor writes in the book.

Weaponising Social Media

The way the Modi government has weaponised social media and image marketing is a recurrent theme in the book, Riham writes.”Discussing Modi’s ‘politics of performance’, Tharoor had written in the new book, “It goes back to 2012-13 when Modi starts building up his personal image, hires a number of internationally recognised public relations firms and starts putting out images and messages that are meant to change the perception of what people assume he is and what he might be.”

“Suddenly, a very successful and rather expensive and extensive campaign is conducted to portray him as not another khaki shorts-wearing RSS pracharak, and to actually sell the idea to young Indians that here was a man who could identify with their aspirations”, Tharoor writes. “Here was a new standard-bearer, a smartly attired modern man who could click a mouse with one hand while brandishing a trishul in the other”, Tharoor was quoted by Rihab as stating in his book. However, the MP believes Modi has had less success in selling his government policies to the public, despite the staggering budget for publicity alone, writes Rihab.

The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in response to a Right to Information query was quoted as saying by the BL report as early as May that the Modi government had spent ₹4,343 crore on publicity since it came to power in May 2014. Tharoor points out how the publicity budget for the Swachh Bharat Mission was five times the outlay for the mission itself. “This is very much a government of smoke and mirrors, that substantive results are far less important to them than the appearance of results; and this is apparent across the board,” he argues. “The photo-op trumps the outcome.”

My party, right or wrong

“One wonders what will remain of the pillars of our democracy by the time Modi is done if he gets another second innings, and therefore it is extremely important to deny him that,” Tharoor says as he concludes the interview.

The book heaves with the weight of its intended purpose — to change the fate of an election. But the “thoughtful, book-reading, Indian public”, for whom Tharoor says he has written his latest title, is certain to notice a glaring blindness in the essays, writes Rihab.

If someone unfamiliar with Indian political and social history were to read them, they would come away thinking worse of the Indian voting public for electing such a government. Unless, of course, one also widens the scope of enquiry to include the role that Tharoor’s own party has had in making Modi seem like the inevitable, inexorable choice, notes the report.

The Paradoxical Prime Minister styles itself as the literary equivalent of a speeding, wailing ambulance taking the voter’s moral and intellectual conscience through the path to recovery — a Modi-mukt sarkar. But it fails to acknowledge the many ways in which the voter was so severely ailing that Modi seemed like a cure, added the report.

The act of BJP National President, Amit Shah, after landing at Kannur Airport yesterday and tossed ‘Congratulations’ to his partymen and his later challenge to the LDF Government has irked the Kerala Finance Minister, Thomas Isaac no bound, as per NDTV report. The Minister took to twitter, Amit Shah permitted to land in Kannur airport which is yet to be opened on November 9, 2018. That is our tradition of hospitality. But he is threatening to oust Kerala government. Such empty threats do not frighten us. Try to win few seats in Assembly. Your frustration is understandable”.

The brand new Kannur international airport is expected to be renovated next month. But Amit Shah’s plane landed there yesterday morning, when the BJP chief visited the politically sensitive town to open a new party office. To the airport officials and the partymen who gathered to welcome him, Mr Shah said, “Congratulations, your inauguration is done”.

The state BJP tweeted, “@AmitShah ji, The very first passenger at #Kannurairport during the auspicious occasion of the inaugural function of Mararji Bhavan, Kannur.”

Addressing a rally in the city later, Shah accused the Left Front government of “misusing” the row over entry to women at the Sabarimala hill shrine. “Today in Kerala a struggle is going on between religious beliefs and state government’s cruelty. The Left government in Kerala has misused the Sabarimala issue. They have used it to arrest workers and supporters of the BJP and other political parties,” he said.

“I warn Kerala’s communist Chief Minister, don’t oppress devotees in the name of implementing the Supreme Court judgement,” he added. Apparently, the Sabarimala row has turned into a political tussle after the state government arrested nearly 3000 people for the protests at temple and stopping women from entering. The government has accused the BJP and its ideological mentor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, of orchestrating the protests to polarise the state ahead of next year’s general elections, added the report.

“BJP president Amit Shah’s statements in Kannur are against the constitution and the law of the land. It is a clear intention of their agenda of not to guarantee the fundamental rights. This shows the agenda of the RSS and Sangh Parivar”, Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayai Vijayan was quoted as saying by the NDTV report.

Shah’s threat

As the number of protesters who were arrested had crossed 2,800 across Kerala in a crackdown on those who prevented women from entering the Sabarimala shrine, BJP chief Amit Shaw accussed the Left government in Kerala was misusing the issue to target BJP and RSS workers. Stating that the party was standing “like a rock” behind them, Shah said the Communist government in Kerala would be brought down by BJP workers.

Fitting response

The response was quick from the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who said it revealed the BJP’s agenda on the Sabarimala standoff. Shah said in Kannur, “Today in Kerala a struggle is going on between religious beliefs and state government’s cruelty. The Left government in Kerala has misused the Sabarimala issue. They have used it to arrest workers and supporters of the BJP and other political parties.”

Subtle Threat

While addressing a rally at Kannur in Kerala after inaugurating a party office in the city, Shah said, “I warn Kerala’s communist chief minister, don’t oppress devotees in the name of implementing the Supreme Court judgement,” he said, terming the protests as “aastha ke liye sangharsh (struggle to save tradition)”.
Shah also alleged that the crackdown by the police is part of “a communist plot against temples. We want to assure the people of Kerala that the BJP will stand like a rock in support of your sentiment. We will always be there for the people of Kerala and the devotees of Lord Ayyappa,” Shah asserted.

Counter Attack

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan responded to Mr Shah’s comments, saying that they go against the constitution. “Amit Shah’s statements in Kannur are against the constitution and the law of the land. It’s a clear intention of their agenda of not to guarantee the fundamental rights. This shows the agenda of the RSS and Sangh Parivar,” he said.

Responding to Mr Shah’s statement that BJP workers will “bring down the Kerala government” if it “continues to oppress Ayyappa devotees”, Vijayan said, “Amit Shah who threatened to topple our government should remember that this government came to power, not at the mercy of BJP, but the people’s mandate. His message is to sabotage the people’s mandate”.

Sabarimala Imbroglio

Kerala had witnessed massive protests from devotees at various places, including Sabarimala, Nilakkal and Pamba, against permitting women of all ages to enter the shrine, where the deity is ‘Naishtika Brahmachari’ (perennial celibate), when the temple was opened for monthly poojas from October 17-22. At least 12 women in the ‘barred’ age group of 10 to 50 had tried to trek the hills to offer prayers but had to retreat following widespread protests.

Across the state, 2,825 people have been arrested after the chief minister on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting with police officials and ordered a crackdown on those defying the Supreme Court order on the entry of women in the Sabarimala temple. A total of 495 cases have been registered. “Most of the people arrested are Hindutva activists, affiliated to various organisations, including BJP and RSS,” a top police source told NDTV.

“Arrests and lookout notices are based on video evidence that the police had recorded during the violence. Even the mobile location of suspects based on the Nilakkal and Pamba mobile towers have been tracked as evidence,” the source told the television channel.

Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, Narenda Modi over the ‘delay’ in constructing the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Shiv Sena supremo, Uddhav Thackeray yesterday asserted that the PM either fulfil the long-pending vow or admit that it was just another jumla (fake promise), NDTV reported.

Shiv Sena Supremo Uddhav Thackeray. Photo Courtesy: NDTV

“You go to countries one can’t even find in geography textbooks, but why haven’t you gone to Ayodhya yet?” he asked at the annual Vijaya Dashami rally in Mumbai, adding that he would ask this question to PM Modi on his visit to the holy city on November 25. Giving an ultimatum to the BJP government, Thackeray said, “Yeh mandir wahin banayenge par taareekh nahi bataayenge (We’ll build the temple, but won’t set a date) approach won’t do… Construct the temple or admit that even this was just another jumla (fake promise).”

Thackeray was the second leader to mention the Ram temple issue on the occasion of Vijaya Dashami yesterday. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat had said in his annual address that the centre should bring a law to build the temple in Ayodhya because it was “necessary from the point of view of self-esteem”. His statement, however, was swiftly countered by the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) — the BJP’s ally in Bihar — which voiced its opposition to any such move. Responding to Bhagwat’s statement, party leader KC Tyagi suggested that all the parties should wait for the Supreme Court verdict on the issue instead of raising it repeatedly, noted the report.

Firing Salvo

Thackeray’s criticism of PM Modi wasn’t restricted to the Ram temple. In his speech, he fired salvo by accusing the BJP of failing on several fronts, such as curbing inflation and ensuring security of women. “Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says that neither inflation nor fuel prices are in their control. So I ask them ‘What is in your control?’ You can’t control inflation, you can’t ensure the safety of women,” he said. “An avatar of Lord Vishnu is with you, and yet, nothing is in your control,” Mr Thackeray said in a caustic reference to PM Modi, who was recently dubbed by Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Avadhut Wagh as the “eleventh avatar of Vishnu”.

Despite being an ally, Mr Thackeray has been deeply critical of the BJP. His Vijaya Dashami speech was consistent with his rocky relationship with the ruling party. The Shiv Sena chief also accused the BJP of “lying to the people” in his speech. Referring to a recent statement by the union minister that seemed to suggest that his party had made tall promises for the sake of winning the Maharashtra assembly election, Thackeray said: “Some say it is straight-talking, but I say it is shamelessness. Such shamelessness is not expected from a Maharashtrian.”

“We made several promises because we did not expect to come to power. But now that we are in power, people come and ask about those promises. So we just remain silent and get away,” Gadkari had told a Marathi television channel, provoking jibes from opposition parties.

Thackeray said the BJP could be voted out of power “because of its lies”. “The country has become a volcano because of your lies. Once this erupts, you will never be able to come back to power,” he said and further accused PM Modi of not having a consistent policy on Pakistan. “Their prime minister comes for the swearing-in ceremony of our prime minister. Our prime minister goes there to celebrate the birthday of their prime minister. Is Pakistan a friend when you say it is, and an enemy when you say it is?” he asked, adding that the government was not doing enough to stop cross-border terrorism, added the report.

As the temple was thrown open for women of all age groups to enter the hilltop shrine of Sabarimala to pray the Lord Ayyappa at the Sannidhanam, protesters frisk vehicles to stop menstural women entering the temple, even as the curfew under Section 144 is in force. The curfew is in force at Nilakkal, Pamba, Sannidhanam and Elavumkal today. Many of the protesters were arrested at Pamba including the right wing activist, Rahul Easwar.

The LDF Government in Kerala is trying to implement the Supreme Court verdict last month, granting women of all age groups entry into Sabarimala temple. As the doors of the temple was opened for the second day today, amid police presence, the furious mob is still indulging in frisking vehicles to look for menstural age group women from entering the hilltop temple. A New York Times reporter tried to enter the temple but the protesters send the scribe back. Yesterday saw chaotic scenes enroute to the hilltop shrine at Nilackal, the gateway to the foothills, where furious mob indulged in pelting stones at the police. The pitched battle continued till late in the evening, where scores of people were injured in the stone pelting. Many women journalists were heckled and their vehicles damaged due to heavy stone pelting. The protesters from the Hindu fringe groups laid siege on the road leading to the temple.

In a latest development, the All Kerala Brahmin Association had approached the Supreme Court seeking a review of the verdict in September that allowed women of all ages in the shrine. News agency ANI reported that plea stated that the verdict suffered from several serious errors that have resulted in ‘grave miscarriage of justice’ for genuine devotees of Lord Ayyappa.

Blame Game

There were blames and counter blames going on over the issue. PS Sreedharan Pillai, the President of BJP Kerala unit said the mob attack on women journalists that happened yesterday was a conspiracy hatched by the ruling CPI (M). He told ANI that around 300 strong police force, who were yet to complete their training were posted in the trouble prone area of Sabarimala and the scene was created.

Apparently, the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, in a tweet, blamed the Rasthtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the outbreak of violence at Sabarimala Temple. The Chief Minister Tweeted: “Sabarimala has a uniqueness that other temples lack; it allows entry for people of all faith. Sangh Parivar and RSS have always been intolerant of this fact. They have made many attempts to erase this distinction of Sabarimala.”

Also, in a Facebook post, Pinarayi Vijayan stated that the RSS was trying to spread terror. “Sabarimala itself is the opposite of obstacles to a believer’s journey, the RSS is spreading terror and trying to discourage them. These movements motivated by upper caste are intended to break the basic character of Sabarimala,” the Chief Minister wrote.

BYJM Volunteers detained

As per News18, many Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP were detained in Nilakkal for staging a protest. While speaking to ANI, the Inspector General of Police, Government of Kerala, Loknath Behra said that the police will provide protection to all pilgrims. “We will add more police personnel and secure all routes.”

While speaking about the New York Times scribe Suhasini Raj, who went back to pamba from her journey to shrine after the mob send her back, Behra said, “She was not forced to come back, she came back.”

Meanwhile, while acknowledging the violence committed since yesterday, the head priest of Sabarimala Temple, Kandararu Rajeevaru had urged the devotees for the custom of Sabarimala Shrine to be maintained. ““It’s a dangerous situation. Most of the devotees are disparate after SC verdict. It’s my request that please maintain system and custom of Sabarimala temple. I don’t agree with violence. It hasn’t been done by devotees but by others,” Rajeevaru told ANI and added that the devotees wanted to follow the old custom to be followed.

“Supreme Court thinks only about the law of the land, not about the customs & traditions. So many devotees still want that the old custom should be maintained. I have only one opinion, which is based on the old custom and tradition”, the head priest added.

RSS Reaction

In an apparent reaction to the mayhem that is going on in Sabarimala, the RSS Chief, Mohan Bhagwat today said that the Sabarimala verdict had not considered the premise of tradition that prohibits mensturating women from entering the temple.

Bhagwat told ANI, “This tradition had been there for so long and was being followed. Those who filed petitions against it are not the ones who will go to temple. A large section of women follow this practice. Their sentiments were not considered.”

Nationwide Shutdown

As the statewide 12-hour strike had been announced by Sabarimala Protecction Committee, there is no movement of buses across the state. Even the state-run road transport corporation has not plied its buses. The commercial markets also remained closed including Kozhikode, PTI reported.

Meanwhile the NYT journalist Suhasini Raj told the media, who was asked to go back from the venue, who was on her way to becoming the first woman to enter the hilltop shrine after the SC verdict, was forced to abandon her journey by the irate mob, after which she returned to Pamba police station.

“I was given an escort by Kerala police, they had done a fantastic job. During my trek, we encountered protesters who were against my presence. They pelted stones at us & Kerala police protected me,” she told News18. Police told ANI that Suhasini Raj returned after seeing the crowd. “When she reached Marakoottam, she decided to come back after seeing the crowd. Police was ready to take her,” ANI quoted them as saying. If she climbed the hill, she would be the first woman of the menstrual age group to visit the temple after the Supreme Court order.

Non-bailable warrants were being issued against those behind attacks on journalists, State Industries Minister, EP Jayaraj was quoted as saying by CNN-News18. Also, the right wing outfit, Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad, led by Pravin Togadia and the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samiti, another outfit of devotees had called for a 24-hour-long hartal starting midnight Wednesday. Also the Union Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday took cognisance of the incidents of violence that took place in Sabarimala on the first day over the Sabarimala row, ANI added.

Amidst raging protest, the door of the Sabarimala shrine opened in the evening to women of all ages. Violence errupted in and around Sabarimala by the frenzied mob, which opposed the Supreme Court order in allowing women of all age groups to enter the temple. The Kerala police clamped prohibitory orders that banned large gatherings. Protesters unleashed reign of terror by stopping the KSRTC buses that ferried the devotees from nearby places to the shrine. The mob also attacked the media persons who went there to report the historic temple entry of women from all age groups. The frenzied mob checked all the buses, stopped women from going near the temple, attacked the journalists and vandalised their vehicles in addition to pelting stones on the police posse.

The ruling CPI-M led Government has fixed the blame on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for fomenting violence. As the raging mob demanded that women between the age group of 10 and 50 be kept out of the shrine and started pelting stones at the police, who had to chase the former through the forests with batons.

In spite of the presence of armed police along the route, protesters supporting the ban scanned all the buses and women were seen pushed out, few of them being assaulted and chased away these hapless women from Nilakkal. Two of the reporters from the Republic TV and The News Minute were assault by the raging mob. As per Republic channel’s account, its reporter Pooja Prasanna was encircled by a 100-strong violent mob, while Saritha S Balan, the report of TNM was assaulted by the mob and one of them had even kicked on the reporter’s spine.

Meanwhile, Sneha Mary Koshy, the reporter of NDTV was waylaid by the mob including the camera person and after snatching the camera, the crew was asked to leave the place by the agitated mob. Also under attack were the television crew from CNN News 18 and Aaj Tak.

The ruling LDF Government has swung into action and posted as many as 500 police personnel including 100 women at Nilakkal. Yesterday, the angry mob further pulled over traffic to look for women of menstural age, forcing a group of female journalism students off a KSTRC bus.

As the top police officer Manoj Abraham put it, “We were actually taken aback yesterday, but from today, we are fully geared up to handle any eventuality. Every devotee will be allowed safe passage.”

Overall, the police had made seven arrests, three connected with the assault on a woman and her husband from Tamil Nadu. The Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan has asserted that his Government will not give in to attempts to prevent women from entering the shrine and police will help uphold the Supreme Court judgement.

The BJP and the Congress have demanded a review of the SC verdict, but the state government is not keen on doing so, as it wanted to implement the SC order. The state government is blaming both the BJP and the Congress for politicising the issue and polarising the society for electoral gains, a charge that is denied by both the parties.